Brian Willson writes, “More data has been added from our band of surveyors (special thanks for all their hard work). Corrections made as reported from feedback.

To support the growing numbers of users on low-resolution devices, I have reduced the size of the spot depths, navigation marks and other icons. Users of high-resolution devices may need to over zoom their display to compensate if your app supports it. The overview zoom levels now show the navigation marks to aid with navigating the broad loughs whilst zoomed a long way out.

There are high-resolution images of a selection of interesting Islands on the two most detailed zoom levels of the charts. (See Holy Island on Lough Derg as an example)

The Grand Canal and the Barrow have had extensive makeovers due to much work/contribution this summer and there is more to come, plus updates to the Royal next year.

All this work and new data has increased the size of the charts so I have created some options to help those who do not need the whole set of data.

As always, we welcome your feedback and constructive criticism for improving the charts.”

“From this version we are moving away from the Bx.x numbering system and just using the date to make versioning a little clearer.

New with this release

For Locus and Galileo users, this chart introduces the industry standard tile size and means that the charts will display much better on iPads.

There have been updates to the Grand Canal from Shannon Harbour to Lock 12 and the Barrow to St Mullins. These are still work in progress so there will be more to come in the next release.

New icons have been developed for moorings. The previous Anchor symbol is now only used for anchorages. A new Bollard symbol has been introduced for fixed moorings and there is a new Mooring Post icon for grass bank moorings.

The Bridges and Locks have changed making the font easier to read. Because the graphics used for the Tree Lined Areas and Reeds were inflating the chart sizes, they have been changed to plain colours.

Just for Fun

The Old Shannon outline has been overlaid in the flooded area below Killaloe. I hope to get a more detailed survey of this area done later this year.”

The latest release of the CSIG charts is now available to all Beta Testers.

Brian Willson writes

“There has been a lot of new data added that has been tirelessly collected by our small but growing band of surveyors. If you want to help and speed up our data collection then please get in touch. The more surveyors we have the faster the charts get populated.”

All outstanding feedback issues that have been passed to Brian are included in this release. This version has new file formats to make the charts much easier to use.

Details of the new release are included in the e-mail sent to all CSIG members.

On February 26th, the B7 Version of the CSIG Charts was released to all Beta Testers.

Brian Willson writes

“I have continued to refine the spot depth algorithms to allow me to increase the size of the spot depths in the charts (by removing redundant spot depths) without losing critical data. I have enlarged the size of the post navigation marks on the Shannon.

There is now an overview of the Barrow Navigation and I have incorporated the Royal and Grand Canals.

Just for Locus and Galileo users there are some new “Experimental” areas of Lough Neagh and the Newry Ship Canal.

There have been many other minor cosmetic changes, tweaks and corrections.